The present invention relates to a method of feeding a succession of reels to a pickup station.
Machines employing reels of strip material generally comprise a storage and feed device defining a feed channel for a succession of reels arranged on edge, and which is step-operated so as to successively feed the reels to a pickup station where they are picked up successively by a pickup head and loaded onto an unwinding spindle, normally with a horizontal axis.
The above method of feeding reels successively to a user machine presents several drawbacks, mainly due to the reels being fed forward at all times on edge, and being deformed in contact with external supports, normally required for both supporting and maintaining the reels substantially aligned with one another. As a result of such deformation, which differs from one reel to another, the reels, on reaching the pickup station, are no longer coaxial with the fixed operating axis of the pickup head.